
,s?^ 



pennulipe* 
pH8J 



sipieegh: 



n— OFi 



HON. M. I. SOUTHARD 

Canal Dover, Ohio, Angiist 7th, 1875. 



[printed by order democratic state executive committee.] 
My Fellow-Citizens : The two 



parties in Ohio have held their Con- 
ventions, put in nomination their can- 
didates, and declared the principles of 
their political faith. 

The election is for State officers, 
yet, in view of the approaching Pres- 
idential contest, it has a wider signifi- 
cance. The whole country is enlisted 
in the result — and National poli(-ies 
are naturally and properly brought 
under review. 

■ More than fourteen years ago the 
Republican party took hold of the 
reins oi the Government. Ever since 
it has held unlimited sway. Its ad- 
vent to pf)\ver was signalized by ffuir 
years of desolating civil war. War 
itnplie force — begets arbitrary power 
and disregard of legal and uifconsti- 
tutiouiil restraints. I shall not, how- 
ever, dwell upon the events of that 
dark period. They belong to the past, 
and are irrelevent to the present iss^ues. 

Ten years have elapsed since peace 
was proclaimed. What grand oppor- 
tunities were then presented for true 



and to guide and control its action. 
The results are before the country. 
While I would not detract one jot 
from the just laurels of the party, I 
would hold it responsible for its mis- 
takes, follies and crimes. AVIiat evi- 
dences of capacity has it left upon 
record during these ten years of peace? 
The National debts stands in almost 
its original proportions ; taxation 
weighs down with increased force upon 
the shoulders of the people ; economy 
is banished from the public service ; 
extravagance and corruption are 
everywhere prevalent; and business 
and trade are utterly paralyzed. Mil- 
lions of treasure are squandered upon 
useless objects and millions more find 
their way into the pockets of thieving 
favorites of prominent efficials. To 
have our country disgraced by the 
frauds of the Credit Mobilier, Di.-trict 
of Columbia, Pacific Mail subsidy, 
and Postoffice, Custom-house, AVhisky 
and Indian rings, has been reserved 
for recent years and Republican rule. 
Indian agents are fattening upon the 



statesmanship! To repair the ravages { ])ublic moneys. This they are doing 
of war; to eradicate the feelings of j while professing to evangelize the In- 
hostility; to restore harmony, good j dian. In fact, they are "Stealing the 



will iind fraternal relations ; toreunite 
the people of the South with the in- 
terests, hopes and destinies of the com- 
mon country — these were the hi^ih 
achievements held out to the Repub- 
lican party, to inspire its patrio.Lism, 



livery of heaven to serve the devil 
in." The Indians get little of the 
beef and blankets designed for their 
use. The agents draw upon the 
Treasury for double the amount sup- 
plied and at twice the value. 



Lg 



ADDITION, DIVISION AND SILENCE 

The exact sum of these frauds can 
not be told. It can only be approxi- 
mated in 'he annual increase in ex- 
penditures. In 1870 they amounied 
to $3,295,729. Since 1870 they have 
averaged overseven millionsannually, 
and for the yearlo73-4 they reached 
$6,692,462. Three railli(ms it may 
be for honest outlay and three mil- 
lions more for stealings. The esti- 
mate for the present fiscal year is 
$7,500,000. There is no necessity for 
this large increase. We are at peace, 
and have been for years, with all the 
tribes. Their number have decreased, 
and the territory to be guarded is of 
less extent than in former years. 

Like extravagance appears in other 
branches of the ];)ul)iic service. In 
1871 the navy cost $19,431,027, and 
in 1874 it cost $30,932,027; in 1871 
the war expenditures were $35,372,- 
150, and in 1874, $42,313,927; in 
1871 the miscellaneous list amounted 
to $60,481,916, and in 1874, to $85,- 
141,593; and the net ordinary ex- 
penditures in 1871 were $157,583,- 
827, and in 1874 they ran up to 
$194,118,985. Such is the official 
exhibit of this party of pretended 
economy. How long will the people 
tolerate it? How long will they per- 
petuate its power? 

But extravagant expenditure is not 
the only difficulty. Through the de- 
pression of business the revenues, in 
the meantime, have largelv fallen off. 
Customs receipts have decreased from 
$206,270,408, in 1871, to $163,103,- 
833, in 1«74; and the internal revenue 
from $143,098,152, in 1871, to S102,- 
409,784, in 1874. They have so far 
diminished that last year they were 
insufficient to defray the ordinary ex- 
penses of the Government. To meet 
this exigency, prudence would have 
dictated a curtailment of expenses. 
But a Bepublican Congress did not 
pursue this wise course. Instead of 
diminishing expenditures, it increased 
taxation. By iliC a(,'t of last winter 
it added to the taxes thirty millions a 
year. The labor and toil of the pro- 
ducing classes must supply the waste, ^ 



and the dance of extravagance must 
still go on. Parties never reform 
themselves, and the only relief for the 
people is a change in the Adminiotra- 
tion. 

The reconstruction policy has 
proven worse than a failure It has 
blighted the "sunny land of the South." 
A policy so inconsistent with the 
spirit of our free institutions — so re- 
pugnant to all those notions of right 
and liberty which so (lee|)ly pervade 
the American heart and mind— could 
not be expected to be productive of 
good. It. has set vice and ignorance 
over intelligence and virtue, and by 
Federal dictation and military force, 
kept pampered pimps of party in au- 
thority, to harrass, oppress and plun- 
der the people Such wholesale ra- 
pacity has never before been revealed 
in the history of any country. The 
valuation of property has diminished 
one-half", taxation increased f)ur-fo]d, 
and the aggregate debt of the States 
enhanced more than two hundred 
millions of dollars. With a property 
valuati(m in 18(50 of $4,333,757,942 
in the eleven Southern States, the 
total State taxation amounted to only 
$8,165,486, while in 1870, with a val- 
uation of. but $2,026,440,971, the 
State taxation amounted to $12,813,- 
615. And the county taxation, on 
the valuation of 1860, was $3,115,- 
184; whereas, in 1870 it reached the 
fabulous sum of $14,298,630. These 
estimates appear from the minority 
report of the Committee on Southern 
Affairs made to the Forty-second 
Congress. What like example can 
be adduced of fraud and extortion? 
Under the name of taxation the pro- 
perty of the citizen has been subjected 
to absolute confiscation. The extor- 
tion of eighty millions from the in- 
habitants of Sicily by Verres, the Ro- 
man Proprietor, which consigned him 
to the shades of lasting infamy, pales 
in comparison with the enormity of 
this rapacity in the South. 

These wrongs we propose to remedy 
by enforcing the wholesome and time- 
honored principles of local sclf-gov- 
erumeut. Confiue the General Gov- 



3 



^ eminent within its proscribed consti- 

Q^tutioiml limitations; take away tlie 

"^tinailed hands of your Grants, your 

■^ Wdliamses and your Slieridaiis, and 

'^ the [)eo|)le of the South will see and 

v^.seek their true interests in the prac 

^;tice of honesty, ihe cultivation of 

<vy peace, and in buihling up their lo.st 

industries. 

Tlie financial policy has been full 
of evil, both in the raan;igement of 
the bon'ied debt and the currency. 
Capital has been aggrandized and 
labor oppressed. "Public credit" 
and "National honor" have been 
the catchwords of the Shylocks while 
they have mercilessly torn off the 
pound of flesh. The Democratic 
party never proposed to weaken that 
credit or tarnish that honor. It has 
insisted u]Jon paying the public debt 
in accordance with the contract. No 
Government ever lost its credit or 
honor by doing this. To pay less 
than the bond stipulates is dishonest ; 
to pay more is extortionate ; and to 
pay in strict accordance with the let- 
ter is just, equitable and honorable. 
The express letter of the law made 
the five-twenty bonds redeemable in 
legal-tenders. I need not stop to 
elucidate this. You are all familiar 
with this truth. When that law was 
enacted, and these bonds issued, one 
contract was made and understood 
between the people and the bondh(jid- 
ers. That contract was that those 
bonds should be sold for greenbacks 
and redeemed in greenbacks. The 
people carried out their part of the 
agreement. They sold the honds for 
greenbacks, which were then depreci- 
ated one-lrdf. But this done, the 
bondholder refused to comply with 
his part of the agreement He in- 
sisted upon payment in gold. At his 
demand Congress passed the act of 
1809. requiring payment in gold. A 
new contract was thus made by Con- 
gress, without the consent of the peo- 
ple, giving the bondholder twice what 
he had agreed to take. Who, there- 
fore, violated the public faith ? Who 
was the repudiator? 

By issuing and selling these bonds 



upon a doprcciated currency basis, 
and afterward iciuiring jjaynient in 
coin, millions have beei^ ndd^d to the 
public debt, and every doiu« tij^g 
improperly added to the amount i.^ 
jnst so much slavery imposed upon 
the laboring and producing classes of 
the country. 

To promote the prosperity of the 
people, a sound and sufficient medium 
of exchange is indispensable. This 
the Republican party has failed to 
furnish, and business is prostrate. It 
is now nearly two years since the be- 
ginning of the financial crisis. It 
still continues. Its heavy hand is 
upon all the industries— the manu- 
factory, the workshop, and the field 
have lost their iife and activity. The 
laborer«and mechanic are out of em- 
ployment, and many are reduced to 
penury and want even in a land pos- 
sessed of all that is capable of sus- 
taining and adorning life. 

What measures of relief are pro- 
posed? The policy of the Republi- 
can party is to force resumption of 
specie payments through further con- 
traction of the currency. It favors 
the retention of the National Bank 
notes, and the retirera<-nt and cancel- 
lation of all the legal-tenders. To 
this policy the party is clearly com- 
mitted by the act to provide for the 
resumption of specie payments, ap- 
proved on the 14lh of January last. 
That act authorizes and requires the 
Secretary of the Treasury at once to 
begin retiring the legal-tenders, and 
to Continue until the whole amount 
outstanding is reduced to three hun- 
dred millions ; and that on and after 
the 1st day of January, 1879, he shall 
retire and cancel the remainder of 
the three hundred millions. For the 
eighty-two millions of legal-tenders 
first to be retired, so as to reduce the 
amount to three hundred millions, the 
Secretary is required to issue National 
Bank notes in their stead ; but no 
such provision of law exists as to the 
remaining three hundred millions. 
This eventually takes out of exist- 
ence the whole of the legal-tenders, 
and reduces the volume of currency 



three hunrlred millions, unless the 
National Bank notes sliall hereafter 
be extencle<l to supply the deficiency. 
To provide the means for the retire- 
ment of the lej^al-tenders, the Secre- 
tary is authorized to issue five per 
cent, interest-bearing bonds. This in- 
creases tlie annual interest on the 
public debt twenty millions of dollars. 

To this whole policy we stand op- 
posed, believing it will result most 
disastrously to business. We say stop 
the further contraction of the curren- 
cy, retire the Kutional Bank notes and 
put legiil-tenders in their stead — -make 
them equal to the wants of trade, and 
bring about specie resumption grad- 
ually and through appreciation of the 
value of the currency '''by promoting 
and not desti'oying the business inter- 
ests of the pe(jple." 

To meet this plain, straight-forward, 
common-sense declaration of our plat- 
form, we hear but little denunciation. 
Our opponents are evidently mad and 
in a fair way for destruction on the 
second Tuesday of October. 

"Financial lunacy," "heresy," 
"worthless rag-money," "repudiation," 
they cry. But no new doctrine has 
been proclaimed. Ever since the in- 
stitution of the National Bank system 
we have steadily and uniformly op- 
posed it as a useless and oppressive 
monopoly. Long ago we have ex- 
pressed our unqualified preference for 
the legal-tenders over the National 
Bank notes. The Democratic Na- 
tional Convention of 18G8 did this in 
the language of: — 

" One currency for the Government ynd 
the people, the lal)orer and the office-holder 
the pensioner and the soldier, ihe producer 
and the bond holder." 

The Democratic State Convention 
of Ohio, in 1870, declared : 

"That we are opposed to the system of 
National Banks, and demand the immediate 
repeal of the law creating them, and tliat iu 
the place of the not"S of such banks Treas- 
ury notes of the United States should be 
substituted." 

The declaration of the party last 
year was equally emphatic, yet the 
platform of 1875 alone is reserved 



and singled out for special attack and 
denunciation. I would commend to 
our traducers a little less petulance, 
and a litile more political honesty. 

But the volume of currency! 
There stalks the spectre! "Equal 
to the wants of trade," snys the Dem- 
ocratic filatform. Who will say it. 
should be less? A few y ars ago this 
was not deemed "heresy" in the esti- 
mation of either party in Ohio. In 
1868, when we had far more currency 
than to-day, the Ohio Republican 
C.onventi.)n bohily proclaimed as a _ 
part of its faith : 

"That we heartily approve of the policy 
of Congress in stopping the contraction of 
the currency, and we believe that the issue 
of the currency should be commensurate 
with the individual and commercial inter- 
ests of the country." 

Democrats then took no issue on 
this question, believing, as they did, 
in the manifest wisdom of the declara- 
tion, and to-day they insist only upon 
the like reasonable demand that the 
currency shall be "equal to the wants 
of trade." If this be "heresy" now, 
when did the Republicans learn it? 
In changing front since 1868, have 
they acted from reason and conviction, 
or are they simply dancing to the 
pipings of the money power? 

But it is said this policy will inflate 
the curi^encyand depreciate its value. 
There is no inflation in enough cur- 
rency More is not demanded. That 
much the people are entitled to have. 
The value may be appreciated with- 
out diminishing the quantity. The 
discount upon paper or premuim upon 
gold is not giaduated in strict accord- 
ance with the volume of the currency. 
It depends upon a multitude of other 
circumstances — political and c dnmer- 
cial — such as the state of })eace or 
war — the stability of the Nation and 
the condition of trade and commerce. 
In the first quarter of 1865, during 
the progress of the war, the premium 
on gold rose as high as $2,345, and in 
the second quarter of the same year, 
after the pr.>clamation of peace, it fell 
as low as $1.281 — the volume of cur- 
rency remaining the same. And while 



5 



in time of peace the premium fell in 
1805 to S1.28g, \l ruse in 18(J8 to 
$1.50, iiotwithstaiidiiig the currency 
had been c.)ntiactc<l, in the meantime, 
more than eight hundred millions of 
dollars. Since the passage of the 
Specie Resumption Act of last winter, 
the volume of curnncy has decreased 
some seventeen millions, yet the pre- 
mium on gold has gone up from \2 to 
17 per cent. Tlie unfavorable state 
of exchange and high price of gold 
in England took place even belore 
the suspension of sj)ecie payments, or 
any excess of the issue of bunk notes. 
A mere increase of amount does not 
imply decrease of value. 

of course there mu;t be reasonable 
limits. There is a medium in all 
things. That -wise course we intend 
to pursue. The adjustment of the 
amount to these reasonable limits is 
left to such measures as the wisdom of 
the future may devise. Whether ii 
shall be by an interchangeable bond, 
a gold reserve, or other method, and 
what shall be the exact character of 
these future issues, whether they shall 
be made redeemable at a spircitied 
time or by a spec. tied fund, or whether 
they shall be exempt from taxation, 
and t e like, 1 need not now stop to 
discuss. 

The original or abstract question of 
the desirableness of a specie basis tor 
the circulation is not presented in the 
present canvass. VVe are not com- 
bating that theory. The position of 
the Democracy does not imply that 
they have lost faith in a mixed cur- 
rency of coin and paper with specie 
as a basis. 

But the follies and crimes of Re- 
publican legislation and administra- 
tive policy have rendered such a ba.-is 
impo^sd^le at the present time or near 
future, except through the ruin of all 
business. VV'e are dealing with an 
abnormal state of affairs. Let it not 
be torgotten, that Republican finan- 
ciering has given us a depreciated 
paper currency — a fabulous indebted- 
ness, and has driven gold from our 
shores. It is to this diseased condi- 
tion of the body politic that we are 



called upon to administer. Physicians 
tell us it is good therapeutics to "so- 
ber up" <:radually the patient who lias 
been long intoxicated. So it is sound 
statesmanship to return gradually and 
with cautious steps to the specie stand- 
ard after we have been lung doing 
busine.ss upon an inflated currency. 

A large paper currency is now au 
admitted necessity. And until gold 
can be both procured and kept by a 
revival of business, trade and com- 
merce, that currency must rest upon 
credit as a basis. A ^^ational 'J'read- 
ury note meets the requirement. But 
our opponents say it is worthless " rag 
money." What Democrat wi>uld have 
dared this stigma a few years ago? 
Stiaightway he would have been sent 
to Fort Warren or the Dry 'loitngas 
for disloyalty. How comes it with 
Repulilieans now that to denounce the 
greenbacks as ' rags" is the highest 
test of loyalty and financ.al wisdom ? 
Is it true that the greenbacks are 
" worthless?" For thirteen years they 
have been good enough to purchase 
all the prudnctsof the larm, the shop 
and the manufactory, to pay the debts 
of individuals and the States, and the 
bounties and pensions of the sokiiers 
and sailors who imperiled their lives 
for tlieir country. 

They are at a slight di-count, to be 
sure. But why? Not because the 
people hav^e not confidence in them, 
but because the Government itself 
dishonors th»^m. It has prohibited 
their use in the payment or customs 
and interest upon the public debt. 
The English bunk note is receivable 
for all public dues. It is nut made 
thus receivable so much because it is 
at par with gold as that it is at par 
because so receivable. The green bueks 
co.-t no annual interest to float them — 
and they rest for their scturity upon 
the creilit of a great, wealthy and en- 
during nation. The same credit which 
gives Value to the bonds and National 
Bank notes, gives value to greenbacks. 
Is credit to be regarded as nothing? 
Individuals and nations throughout 
the civilized world do and must trans- 
act business upon credit. Upon what 



G 



does tlie " specie basis" rest except 
credit? It is the chief conier-stoue 
of that fabric. The coin in reserve 
is never equal to more tlian a small 
per cent, of the circulation. Thirty- 
three f)er cent, is a large average, it 
proceeds upon the theory that in the 
ordinary transaction of business not 
more than that amount of notes will 
be presented for redemption at any 
one time. The business, therefoi'e, 
rests one-third upon specie and two- 
thirds upon credit. When financial 
revolutions come, and the holders of 
notes grow apprehensive, when credit 
is weakenc'l or lost, there is a simul- 
taneous call upon the banks for re- 
demption, and the inevitable result is 
suspension of payment When, dur- 
ing her wars, to stimulate enlistments, 
the English nation gave out that the 
fit els of the enemy were hovering in 
her waters, the alarm of the subjects 
did not induce them to Hock to the 
standard as was expected — but to rush 
to the banks and convert their bills 
into specie. Immediate suspension 
followed. The great bullion bank of 
Amsterdam transacted business of 
over lour billions a year, yet it never 
held at any one time over thirty five 
millions of coin. Its real basis was 
the credit of the city of Amsterdam. 
The baidi. was insolvent, and but for 
the credit of the city would have sus- 
pended forty years before it did. In 
1857, and at all former times or' finan- 
cial embarrassment in the United 
States, the specie in the banks has 
been wholly inadequate to protect the 
note-holder. While credit is so im- 
portant a factor of security on the 
"specie basis," it will not do to ignore 
its value as a basis for the greenback. 
Especially is this so when it comes in 
that highest type of the good faith 
and ability of a great nation like ours, 
representing forty millions of people 
and thirty l)illions of accumulaied 
wealth. I see no good reason, there- 
fore, why greenbacks should not be 
substituted for the National Bank 
Inotes, the present volume of which 
jcosts us twenty millions a year to 
float. 



Btit I desire to call attention to an- 
other matter. N()tably an)ong the 
many misrepresentations of our op- 
ponents stands the denial of any con- 
traction of the currency. Senator 
Sherman in his speech at Marion, 
Lawrence county, on the 31st of July, 
said: 

"Sometimes it is said that tlie recent panic 
was caused by a want of currency. This 'is 
a great error. In September, 1873, wben tlie 
panic commenced, the araopnt of United 
Stales notes outstanding was S356,000,000, of 
fractional currency 145,000,000, and Ihe bank 
circulation $339,000,000 -in all «7 10.000,000, or 
more than it had ever been before." 

This statement we hear every day, 
and it is utterly failacjious. It is based 
upon the assumption that the United 
States notes, JNaiional Bank notes 
and fractional currency have consti- 
tuted the whole volume of currency. 
The fact is, they embraced only a 
part Other issues far greater iu 
amount than the aggregate of the 
United States notes, iSlational Bank 
notes and fractional currency, were 
in existence in I8t)5 at the close of 
the war. 

The Secretary of the Treasury, in 
the Finance Report of 1867. pages 3 
and 4, names the ibllowing amount of 
issues on the 31st day of August, '(35: 
Temporary loans, #107,148,713 ; cer- 
tificates of indebtedness, $85,09.3,000 ; 
five per cent, legal-tender notes, $'So,- 
954,230; compound interest legal- 
tender notei, $217,024,100; seven- 
thirty notes, $830,000,000; United 
States notes (legal- tender), $433, 160,- 
569 ; fractional currencv, $26,344,- 
742— making $l,732,72o,414. To 
this must, be added the National Bank 
notes at that time, $131,452,000 and 
State b.mk notes at lea.^t $100,000,- 
00(>, giving a grand total of $1,963,- 
677,414, as the circulating medium, 
exclusive of specie. But it is claimed 
that these interest- bearing notes — the 
five per cent, compound interest and 
seven-thirties — were not used as cur- 
rency. When Judge Bright, of 
Tennessee, had the floor in the dis- 
cussion of this question in the House 
at the first session of last Congress, 
Ml'. Towuseud, of Pennsylvania, in- 



terrupted him, and denied that these 
issue-^ were used as currency, and as- 
serted that they were hehl as invest- 
ments Whereupon, Mr. Maynard, 
of Tennessee, a Republican, and 
Chairman of the Committee on Bank- 
ing and Currency, said : 

'•If my colleague will allow me, I will sug. 
gest to the gentleman from Penasj'lvania 
(Mr Townsend) that those issues of which 
he speaks were engraved and prepared in a 
form to circulate as money; and as a matter 
of fact they did so circulate until the inter- 
est accumulated so as to inake them superior 
to the ordinary class of currency, and they 
formed part of the reserve of the National 
Banks." 

Speaking of she seven-thirty notes, 
the Secretiirv of the Treasury, in his 
report for 1865, says : 

"Many of the small denominations of 
which were in circulation as money, and all 
of which tend in some measure to swell the 
inflation " 

And in speaking of the five per 
cent and compound interest notes, 
the Secretary, in his report for 1867, 
says : 

"A very large portion of which were in 
circulation as money." 

It is settled, therefore, heyond ques- 
tion, that these interest-bearing notes 
were used as rtirrency, and they 
amounted to $1 ,080 884',7?!0— not one 
dollar of which did Senator Sherman 
inchide in his estimate. 

In 1865, the policy of contraction 
was inaucrurated. It was recommend- 
ed hy the Secrerary of the Treasury, 
sanetioned by Congress, and immedi- 
ately put into execution. In the Fi- 
nance Report of 1867, the Secretary 
gives a summary of two years' opera- 
tions as follows : 

"Since the fir.st day of September, 1865, the 
temporary loans, the certificates of indebt 
edness, and thw five per cent, notes have aU 
been paid (with the exception of small 
amounts of each not presented for pay- 
menti. Compound interest notes have been 
reduced from ?2]7,024,160 to $71,875,000 (#11,- 
660,000 having been taken up with three per 
cent certificates); the seven and thiee-tenth 
notes from J830,000,000 to 1337,978,800; the Uni 
ted States notes, including fractional cur- 
rency, flom d59,505,311.51 to 5387,871,477.39, 
and the funded debt has been increased 
1686,684,800." 



Here we w^itness a contraction in 
two years of $686,000,000. Under 
its influence business grew sensitive. 
Congress became alarmed, and on the 
4th day of February, 1868, passed an 
act prohibiting further contraction of 
the currency. 

Still the policy was pursued. In 
his annual message of December, 1873, 
the President says : 

"During the last four years the currency 
has been contracted directly, by the with- 
drawal of three per cent, cert'ficaies, com- 
pound interestnotes,andseven-thirly bonds 
outstanding on the 4th o( March, 1869, all of 
which took the place of legal-tenders in the 
bank reserves, to the extent of «63,000,000." 

Such is the evidence of the steps of 
contraction. To determine the full 
evtent to which it has been /-arried, 
we must ascertain the amount of cur- 
rencv we now liave. The Comptroller 
of the Currency, in the Finance Re- 
port of 1874,' pages 148 and 149, 
shows that on the 1st day of Novem- 
ber, 1874, th^re were outstanding of 
National Rank notes, S?i48,791 ,1 52 ; < 
legal-tenders, $:^82.000.000; fractional 
cnrr^ncv, $48,151,024, making in all 
$778,042,176; and the Secretary of 
the Trensurv, in the same report, 
pages 36 and 37, give* the amount of 
the temporary loans, $78,560 ; certifi- 
cates of indebtedness, $5,000 ; com- 
ftound interest notes, $415,210. seven- 
thirty notes $228,450, which aL'-irre- 
crate only $727,220. This, ndde.j to 
the $778,942,176. makes $779,669,- 
396 as the total pafer circulating 
medium of every character whatso- 
ever. Rut of this sum, as appears 
bv the Finance Report of 1874. page 
135, $104,528,003 is required to be 
held in le<:al-tenders as reserves in 
National Banks. 

AVhat, then, is the summary ? 

On the 31st of August, 1865 $1,963,677,414 

On the l.st of November, 1874 779,609,396 

Amount of contraction $1,184,008,018 

Total paper circulation Novem- 
ber 1, 1874 1:779.069 396 

Deduct legal tender reserves 104,528,093 

Present available circulation $676,141,303 

With all this acrumuhition of evi- 
dence fioiu the hiuhorit official sources 



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— from the declarations and exhibits 
of Presidpnt. Secretary of the Treas- 
ury and Comptroller of the Currency, 
is it not remarkable audacity to deny 
the fact and t(j assail the Democratic 
party of Ohio for asserting in their 
platform that there had been a cim- 
traction of the currency? That con- 
tiaetion is most clearly established. 
With its consequences you are all 
familiar in the blighting and bla.-ting 
of your industries. However much 
men may differ as to the desii'ableness 
of a specie basis, there should be but 
one opinion as to the injustice and 
ruin of the financial policy which has 
obtained for the last ten years. A 
rapid transition from paper to gold — 
fluctuation in the circulation — must 
of necessity unsettle business and lead 
to bankru toy. All history teaches 
this Apprehensions of such calamity 
were entertained when the policy of 
contraction began, and the Secretary 
of the Treasury in 1867 congratulated 
the country upon the fact that while 



credit bridged over the intervening 
period, but the fatal elements had 
been summoned, and at last burst 
forth in all their fury, sweeping away 
the fortunes of thousands of men and 
spi'eading disaster throughout the 
country. With all the uses of money 
extended, with thousands of miles of 
additional railroads, with a National 
debt of over two billions, with other 
indebtedness — State, county, munici- 
pal, corporate and individual — of 
some seven billions more, with dlimit- 
able territory, with over forty millions 
of population, with ten billions of art- 
nual exchaiig.'able products, and with 
all business adjusted to the gauge of 
nearly two thousand millions of cir- 
culation, we have been forced by a 
single step and almost instan- 
taneously to a limit of available cir- 
culation of less than seven hundred 
millions. Depreciation of values, loss, 
and suffering, must inevitably be en- 
tailed by such a course, and we should 
not think it strange that all ourchan- 



si.K hundred and eighty-six millions i nels of trade are stagn mt. Stop this 



had been taken up and retired, there 
had been "no commercial crisis," 
and "no considerable financial em- 
barrassment" But that period of 
supposed security and prosperity was 
delusive — it was the calm which pre- 
ceded the storm of 1873. Faith and 



further contraction, ad give us once 
more I'Cal government in the States, 
honesty and economy in the public 
service, and a conservative financial 
policy, w th currency sufficient for the 
wants of business, and we shall again 
attain peace, prosperity and plenty. 



Ohio Statesman Print, Columbus, O. 



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